East spaces in West times: Deictic reference and political self-positioning in a post-socialist East German chronotope

In post-socialist eastern Berlin, past and present state-level institutions figure importantly in spatial and temporal deixis. Post-socialist redevelopment has led to the physical transformation or eradication of socialist-era state landmarks and workplaces, yet speakers continue to rely on past official (East) spaces to make reference in the present, a ‘now’ that some speakers consider to be ‘West-times’. In doing so, they often position themselves in latent disputes evaluating the kinds of spaces and times that fit to the categories ‘here’ and ‘now’. This article examines indexical means of constituting post-socialist subjectivity through instances of temporal and spatial deixis, focusing in particular on the usefulness of multivocality to political ends.